Sound off for Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013

On foreign aid: Now that India had a hurricane, I’m sure the US will write out a big check for that country even though we’re broke and we can’t even make our own payments and help Social Security and the veterans and the military. On state workers: Gov. Walker, please stop messing with state employees. Now you are going after their health care again. Some 30 years ago, then-Gov. Thompson struck a deal with them to change from private health care to HMOs. He promised a big bonus. I changed, and the state saved billions. And guess what? No bonus. Now you want to undo that. On Janesville schools: The Janesville School District lost over 100 teachers at the end of the last school year. Does anyone on the school board realize what’s happening in the schools? It’s time to get out and ask questions, listen and believe the facts.On Janesville fire station: A $7 million hotel for a fire station? Don’t our firefighters have homes? Why are we paying them to sleep during second and third shifts? This is beyond out of control. You were elected to represent the people and the taxpayer, not the hired help.On state government: Gov. Walker, you can take your proposed property tax break of a whole $13 per year and give it to a teacher or back to the technical training programs that you cut by 30 percent. This sounds like our governor is concerned over the next election already.-- I like how when Walker does something terrible, you put it on the front page, but when there’s another $89 million surplus, you put it under Briefs. Maybe Obama and his cronies in Washington should take a look at how you run a political establishment like Walker has done with this state. The newspaper’s a joke.On tea party: On Monday, tea party zealots were camped out in front of the White House waiving the confederate flag, which represents racism, hatred and treason. Paging Paul Ryan or any other Republicans who fancy themselves as leaders. Why aren’t you denouncing these hatemongers?-- An article says the tea party is the big loser in the shutdown. No, the big losers are our children and grandchildren. They get to have another trillion dollars stolen from them in the upcoming year, and not only do they get to pay that back, they get to pay interest, too. On the scale of despicable behavior, stealing from your children and your grandchildren is right up there. On crime: What is our police department doing about the sudden rash of home invasions, burglaries and robberies? Is it time for neighborhood patrols to watch over us?On credit rating: This story indicates that our credit rating is threatened because some in Washington are arguing for more fiscal responsibility; that is nonsense. Our credit rating is threatened because we’ve been irresponsibly borrowing and spending for decades.On government shutdown: This entire government shutdown consists of 17 percent. When Ronald Reagan left office in 1988, the entire federal budget was less than $1 trillion. One generation later, we’re spending $4 trillion. Has our population quadrupled in 25 years? No, it hasn’t. If directed properly, a 17 percent cut in this government would not even be noticed.-- So the US is back in business. Back to spending like a drunken sailor with no budget, while government workers got a paid vacation. What a deal!On Obamacare: I’ve been trying to get onto the website and sign up, and I have not been able to do it. I’m willing to give them a pass for a couple days of trying to work the bugs out, but it’s been two weeks, and I haven’t gotten any farther than I did the first day.-- There’s talk in the media about the Republican Party destroying itself, but I think it’s the Democratic Party that is destroying itself. Here’s why: When the average low- information Democratic voter who thinks Obamacare is free finds out that it’s very expensive and that they have to pay for it under penalty of law, the Democratic Party is going to have a revolt on their hands. On entitlements: Why doesn’t someone say we could support all entitlements—Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, plus the Affordable Health Care Act—if we were not always fighting useless wars? That’s where our money goes.-- We’re always hearing about Social Security running out of money but never welfare or food stamps running out. There’s always enough for the entitlements, while the elderly in need are denied nursing home care. The elderly have paid their dues; they should receive them before those who haven’t.On the moderate middle: I could not agree more with Kathleen Parker’s article Wednesday. I only hope when the debt ceiling increase has been passed, we will remember and make our votes and voices heard. No more insanity and extreme agendas. For the first time, I will volunteer, and believe me, it will not be for the tea party.On Riverside Park wading pool: Shame on Janesville. I cannot believe that after all the effort to get our beautiful park up and running, they’re throwing in the towel. We may never have another flooding incident in 40 years, and the idea is to install a splash pad at a prohibitive cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars when it only costs around $10,000 a year to run the pool. It’s foolish to close that pool. On Leonard Pitts: Dr. Ben Carson is just a brain surgeon. What does he know? How can he compare with a genius like Leonard Pitts, who makes his living disseminating racial hate speech through the print media?